New Analysis: Trumpcare May Cut Ortho Volumes 1.2%

A new analysis by one of Wall Street’s top medical device research groups has concluded that the May 4 passage of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), if ultimately signed into law by President Trump, would likely reduce orthopedic procedure volumes 0.7% in 2018 and, cumulatively, cut overall volumes 1.2% in 2026.

The new analysis also concluded that the spine surgery sector would be the hardest hit.

The May 17 research report was issued by Wells Fargo Securities and was based on their analysis of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the initial House AHCA bill. That CBO analysis concluded that, if passed, the AHCA bill would pull insurance back from 14 million to 24 million Americans in 2018 and 2026, respectively.

The CBO will be updating this scoring in the coming weeks, but most analysts, including the Wells Fargo team, don’t expect the basic conclusions to change materially.

Five takeaways from both the CBO report and Wells Fargo’s analysis:

People with healthcare coverage tend to consume more healthcare services than those without coverage. Wells Fargo’s team found that the number of procedures per million tends to be lower in people without insurance then those with insurance.

Passage of AHCA could cut coverage for 4.4% of U.S. population. The CBO estimated that passage of AHCA would remove health coverage from approximately 14 million people or 4.4% of the U.S. population in 2018. Doing the math, that would mean a potential 0.5% reduction in healthcare procedure volume.

Orthopedic procedures are highly dependent on insurance coverage. Wells Fargo’s research team found that orthopedic procedures are among the most dependent on insurance coverage. Of the six procedures which appeared to be most dependent on insurance coverage, four were orthopedic including knee arthroplasty, hip arthroplasty, spine fusion and non-hip & knee arthroplasty. For example, the average number of uninsured among the non-elderly (non-Medicare) population is 10.5%. But the number of uninsured who have knee arthroplasty (again, non-elderly) is 1.2%. Again, 10.5% for the overall population and 1.2% for knee arthroplasty.

A growth-driven and strategic executive, Peter Coffaro commands more than 20 years of progressive management success within the orthopedic industry. Recognized by MedReps.com as one of the top medical sales influencers in the industry; he has 10 years of combined sales management experience and has held positions as a Director, General Manager and Distributor. Peter has worked for some of the top orthopedic companies in the world - Zimmer, DePuy and Stryker. He is also the founder of OrthoFeed: a popular blog that covers orthopedic news and emerging medical technologies. Peter is a three-time Hall of Fame award winner at Johnson and Johnson and has an extensive background in organizational development, business development, sales management, digital marketing and professional education. Peter holds a B.S. degree in Biology from Northern Illinois University.

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OrthoFeed is a blog about orthopedics and emerging medical technologies. The blog posts cover a wide range of digital health topics including: 3-D Printing, Robotics, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. The website is updated daily to help our viewers stay on top of industry trends. The OrthoFeed motto is “We curate, you discover!”